The history of the domaine goes back to 1872, when William Ponsot purchased a wine estate in Morey-St-Denis and set up home there. His major parcels of land at that time were: Clos des Monts-Luisants and Clos de la Roche. Throughout the 20th century, the domaine was a significant pioneer of innovation. Back in the 1930s, Hippolyte Ponsot was one of the co-founders of the Appellation d’Origine Controlée system. He increased the size of Clos de la Roche by purchasing ¾ of the original "Clos de la Roche" lieu-dit. He started bottling his entire harvest at the Domaine. This was very rare at the time and only a dozen or so Burgundy wine estates did so before the Second World War. The 1934 vintage was the first to be sold in France, with sales in the United States and numerous other European countries. His son Jean-Marie was a pioneer of clonal selection in Burgundy in the early 1960s. Many of the most respected clones of Pinot Noir came from the mother-stock planted in 1954 and still in production in Clos de la Roche vineyards. 1981, Laurent Ponsot started working with his father Jean-Marie on the family estate and became its manager together with his sister Rose-Marie Ponsot. He farms the vineyards and makes wine with an emphasis on total authenticity. Laurent was responsible for the day to day running of the domaine for almost 20 years

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Today, the estate continues to be an entirely family-run business, its various entities being owned by Laurent, Rose-Marie, Catherine and Stéphanie Ponsot. Before talking about geology, it should be remembered that a "terroir" depends on a combination of several natural factors that endow it with its typical characteristics: geology, topography, pedology, climate and microclimate. While some factors are unchanging such as geology, others vary from one year to another such as the amount of sun or rain, which then combine with cultivation variants such as grape variety, the mix of grape varieties in a vineyard, pruning techniques and so on. All these factors add an extra dimension that is expressed in the vintage.  Clos de la Roche is the finest and biggest red grand cru appellation in Morey St Denis, Côte de Nuits. Its soils are rich with marl which gives the wine great ageing potential and complexity. The wines tend to be rich, full-bodied and powerful whilst packed with black fruit flavours.